Ethnic militants threaten to blow up oil facilities

Militants from the Ijaw ethnic group in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta region threatened on Monday to blow up oil facilities they have seized if military raids continued against their villages. Armed militants of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) said they had seized 11 oil pumping stations belonging to Royal/Dutch Shell, ChevronTexaco and TotalFinaElf. They said the action was in reprisal for attacks by the military whom they accuse of siding with their Itshekiri rivals in communal clashes over the past few weeks. Dan Ekpebide, a leader of FNDIC, said combined army and navy troops had attacked several Ijaw communities since last week, killing and injuring scores of people and forcing thousands to flee their villages. "If they continue these attacks we'll have no alternative but to blow up all these facilities under our control," he told IRIN. In the latest confrontation between troops and the militants on Saturday, five people, including two soldiers and three employees of TotalFinaElf were killed in a battle for the control of two of the company's facilities in the western Niger Delta, army spokesman Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu said. TotalFinaElf subsequently announced its withdrawal from the Upomami and Kpoko facilities. The three oil transnationals affected by the current crisis have so far cut their output, which amounts normally to about 800,000 barrels per day (bd) - more than one-third of Nigeria's daily production of about two million bd. FNDIC said more than 55 of its militants had been killed since an initial confrontation with troops at the village of Okerenkoko, and that an unknown number of unarmed villagers have been killed by soldiers. The military authorities said more than 10 soldiers have so far been killed, bringing known casualties to more than 65 dead. The conflict is linked to a violent dispute which broke out in the Delta town of Warri in February between the Urhobo and the Itshekiri communities over the delineation of electoral wards ahead of April-May general elections. The Ijaw community took sides with the Urhobo, alleging that the boundaries favoured the Itshekiri.